For most people, their identity is not something that can be taken away
from them or questioned. Identity is complex, it’s personal, it’s, for
me, unexplainable.

The UK government maintains that it is fully committed to the Good
Friday Agreement whilst simultaneously contesting the treaty through the
courts. It reassures both the Irish government and EU that it will
uphold its commitments whilst fighting to break them.

Described as ‘the condition of being oneself’ and protected in countless
treaties worldwide, identity has been long accepted as a basic human
right. It was an overriding principle in Northern Ireland throughout the
Troubles and paramount to the Good Friday Agreement -and it is here
where it carries an even greater significance and weight.

The treaty affords the people of Northern Ireland the right to choose
their identity; a choice that was essential in bringing peace and one
which is being habitually diminished, challenged and refused by the UK
Government.

I am an Irish citizen, born in Northern Ireland whose Good Friday
Agreement right to identify as such has been repeatedly denied by the UK
Home Office. An identity that I didn’t chose or consider in a place
where religion is often synonymous with it. Even as a child, I knew when
I was safe or unsafe and understood the reason for that was my Irish
identity.

The political landscape and attitudes have changed massively but the
divisions of my childhood created in me a unique affinity for my
identity. Its true worth and importance wasn’t something I often thought
of until I began the process of stabilising my non-EU spouse’s status
when I’d find myself questioning the validity of my lifelong self.

In 2015, I applied for a European Economic Area (EEA) residence card for
my husband as the spouse of an Irish national. This was refused by the
UK Home Office who claim that I am “automatically a British Citizen” as
I was “clearly born in the United Kingdom.” The Good Friday Agreement
states that the people of Northern Ireland can chose to be Irish or
British or both. The right to self-identify and, in my case, the right
to not be British is central to the agreement itself.

The department offered, as it oftentimes does, the option to renounce
this unclaimed citizenship. The first line of the form is a declaration
‘I am a British citizen.’ It seemed to me, that in the eyes of the UK
Government my choice to be Irish was wrong, lesser, unimportant and
irrelevant, a feeling that has not subsided.

Appealing came at an immeasurable personal cost, no freedom of movement
for 2 years being one. The judge ruled in our favour stating that: “The
constitutional changes effected by the Good Friday Agreement with its
annexed British-Irish Agreement, the latter amounting to an
international treaty between sovereign governments supersede the British
Nationality Act 1981 in so far as the people of Northern Ireland are
concerned.

“He or she is permitted to choose their nationality as a birthright.
Nationality cannot therefore be imposed on them at birth.”

The UK Home Office now seek to overturn this ruling, one that has
already been upheld in a second decision. The department claims the
judge “misconstrued the effect of the British-Irish Agreement,” stating
that “a treaty to which the UK government is a party does not alter the
laws of the United Kingdom.” A worrying argument.

The UK government maintains that it is fully committed to the Good
Friday Agreement whilst simultaneously contesting the treaty through the
courts. It reassures both the Irish government and EU that it will
uphold its commitments whilst fighting to break them.

During the three years of our marriage - and the three years of this
legal battle - we’ve uncovered a systemic, institutionalised disregard
for the Good Friday Agreement. The failings within the Home Office are
at every level. We’ve seen citizens be told they’ve obtained their Irish
passport by fraud, that their child has no right to residence in
Northern Ireland, that they have no right to residence with an Irish
passport.

A community within Northern Ireland is, in the here and now, being
marginalised, penalised and discriminated against, the effect of which
is catastrophic. And the cause is their identity.

This presupposition taken by the UK Home Office further cements not the
citizenship clause of the Good Friday Agreement, but the fear that
people of Northern Ireland will become second class EU citizens after
Brexit.

The people of Northern Ireland did not vote for Brexit and a simmering
disquiet can be felt across the country as the deadline approaches,
evidenced in the Letter to Leo campaign of which I was a signatory. The
campaign directly calls on Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to stand by his
government’s commitments. As co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement,
the Irish government has a responsibility to protect the interests of
its people north of the border.

The atmosphere is palpable - and the fear growing - that the future
Northern Ireland has been working towards will be taken apart by Brexit.
We have no guarantees and no protections; just a clear gradual erosion
of the treaty each side is promising to protect. No matter which way I
look at Brexit, it is set to breach the treaty. If it isn’t the border
issue, then it’s citizenship rights where there can be no detrimental or
differential treatment between the two communities of Northern Ireland.

The intention or motivation behind the UK Home Office relentlessly
appealing this court ruling remains unclear. What is clear, however, is
there is a price on an Irish identity in Northern Ireland. It is losing
your right to work. It is losing your right to travel. It is losing the
right to be at your grandmother’s side as she passes. It is losing your
right to be who you are. You have to ask yourself, ‘what is your
identity worth?’

We return to court on November 26th with the argument that identity is
tantamount to the Good Friday Agreement. In the words of Bill Clinton in
1998, “In the days to come there may be those who try to undermine this
great achievement. All the parties and the rest of us must stand
shoulder to shoulder to defy any such appeal.”

* Emma and Jake deSouza have launched a fundraising campaign to assist their
legal battle. It is online at:
https://www.gofundme.com/help-end-home-office-discrimination

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